Anti-Kremlin protesters invade World Cup pitch

The World Cup final between France and Croatia on Sunday was briefly interrupted when three intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot ran onto the pitch before being hauled off by stewards.
REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

The World Cup final between France and Croatia on Sunday was briefly interrupted when three intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot ran onto the pitch before being hauled off by stewards.
REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Close

1 / 22

The pitch invaders, who were dressed in police-style outfits, were later detained by police, one of them told Reuters by telephone from a police station near Moscow's Luzhniki stadium, venue for the match.
REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

The pitch invaders, who were dressed in police-style outfits, were later detained by police, one of them told Reuters by telephone from a police station near Moscow's Luzhniki stadium, venue for the match.
REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Close

2 / 22

Croatia's Dejan Lovren clashes with a pitch invader. In a post on its Facebook page, the group said its action was intended to draw attention to what it said were human rights abuses in Russia.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

Croatia's Dejan Lovren clashes with a pitch invader. In a post on its Facebook page, the group said its action was intended to draw attention to what it said were human rights abuses in Russia.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Close

3 / 22

A steward apprehends a pitch invader while Croatia's Dejan Lovren looks on. Three of Pussy Riot's original members were jailed in 2012 for staging a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a church and the group have since become a symbol...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

A steward apprehends a pitch invader while Croatia's Dejan Lovren looks on. Three of Pussy Riot's original members were jailed in 2012 for staging a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a church and the group have since become a symbol of anti-Kremlin direct action.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Close

4 / 22

In the second half of Sunday's match, the three people wearing white shirts with police-style epaulettes, black trousers and police hats ran out onto the pitch from the area behind the French goal. A fourth person tried to run onto the pitch but was...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

In the second half of Sunday's match, the three people wearing white shirts with police-style epaulettes, black trousers and police hats ran out onto the pitch from the area behind the French goal. A fourth person tried to run onto the pitch but was tackled on the sidelines.
REUTERS/Darren Staples

Close

5 / 22

One photograph on social media showed one of the pitch invaders, a woman with blonde hair tucked under a police cap, performing a high-five with France player Kylian Mbappe before being caught.
REUTERS/Darren Staples

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

One photograph on social media showed one of the pitch invaders, a woman with blonde hair tucked under a police cap, performing a high-five with France player Kylian Mbappe before being caught.
REUTERS/Darren Staples

Close

6 / 22

The three ran about 50 meters, dispersing in different directions, before stewards wearing high-visibility jackets tackled them to the ground and dragged them off the pitch.
REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

The three ran about 50 meters, dispersing in different directions, before stewards wearing high-visibility jackets tackled them to the ground and dragged them off the pitch.
REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Close

7 / 22

The match, watched from the stands by Putin and the French and Croatian presidents, was halted, but resumed about 25 seconds later. A witness at the stadium said he had seen police escorting the pitch invaders out of the stadium...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

The match, watched from the stands by Putin and the French and Croatian presidents, was halted, but resumed about 25 seconds later. A witness at the stadium said he had seen police escorting the pitch invaders out of the stadium grounds.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Close

8 / 22

The pitch invasion was the first significant security lapse in the five-week tournament that has won hosts Russia widespread praise for their good organization and efficiency.
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

The pitch invasion was the first significant security lapse in the five-week tournament that has won hosts Russia widespread praise for their good organization and efficiency.
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Close

9 / 22

Pussy Riot member Olga Kurachyova told Reuters she was one of the pitch invaders and was being held at Luzhniki police station. She said she could not speak further because police were trying to take her mobile phone away from her. Moscow police said...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

Pussy Riot member Olga Kurachyova told Reuters she was one of the pitch invaders and was being held at Luzhniki police station. She said she could not speak further because police were trying to take her mobile phone away from her. Moscow police said in a statement that three young women and a young man had been detained after running onto the pitch.
REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Close

10 / 22

In its Facebook post, Pussy Riot complained of rights abuses in Russia. They alluded to Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker jailed for 20 years in 2015 for setting fire to two offices in Crimea, including one belonging to Russia's ruling party, after...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

In its Facebook post, Pussy Riot complained of rights abuses in Russia. They alluded to Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker jailed for 20 years in 2015 for setting fire to two offices in Crimea, including one belonging to Russia's ruling party, after Moscow annexed the region from Ukraine.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Close

11 / 22

A pitch invader runs near Croatia's Ivan Strinic and France's Kylian Mbappe. Pussy Riot said their demands included freeing political prisoners in Russia, freedom of speech on the internet, freedom to protest, and allowing political...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

A pitch invader runs near Croatia's Ivan Strinic and France's Kylian Mbappe. Pussy Riot said their demands included freeing political prisoners in Russia, freedom of speech on the internet, freedom to protest, and allowing political competition.
REUTERS/Darren Staples

Close

12 / 22

The group shared a video on social media recorded before the incident featuring three female activists, at least two of whom were among those detained. They wore police uniforms and one of them wore a pink balaclava. "The World Cup has shown...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

The group shared a video on social media recorded before the incident featuring three female activists, at least two of whom were among those detained. They wore police uniforms and one of them wore a pink balaclava. "The World Cup has shown wonderfully what the police can be like in Russia, but what will happen afterwards?" one of the activists asked in the video, an apparent allusion to lenient policing noted by Russians during the tournament.
REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Close

13 / 22

Russian news website MediaZona, co-founded by one of the original three Pussy Riot members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, reported that one of the pitch invaders was Pyotr Verzilov, Tolokonnikova's husband.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

Russian news website MediaZona, co-founded by one of the original three Pussy Riot members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, reported that one of the pitch invaders was Pyotr Verzilov, Tolokonnikova's husband.
REUTERS/Carl Recine

Close

14 / 22

A separate video posted on social media appeared to show the moments after the pitch invaders had been detained. Two of them, a man and a woman, could be seen standing in a room, dressed in disheveled police uniforms, while a voice off camera...more

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

A separate video posted on social media appeared to show the moments after the pitch invaders had been detained. Two of them, a man and a woman, could be seen standing in a room, dressed in disheveled police uniforms, while a voice off camera demanded handcuffs be brought. "Do you know that Russia will pay for this to FIFA through sanctions?" the off-camera voice said, in an angry tone. "You wanted to s--- on Russia, didn�t you?" "We are for Russia," the male detainee replied. "Sometimes I regret that it's not 1937," the person off- camera in the video said. That year was the height of political repressions carried out by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Close

15 / 22

A steward apprehends a pitch invader. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

A steward apprehends a pitch invader. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Close

16 / 22

Stewards apprehend a pitch invader. REUTERS/Carl Recine

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

Stewards apprehend a pitch invader. REUTERS/Carl Recine

Close

17 / 22

Stewards chase a pitch invader. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Reuters /
Sunday, July 15, 2018

Stewards chase a pitch invader. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Close

18 / 22

Two of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, Olga Pakhtusova (L) and Olga Kurachyova, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, attend a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018....more

Reuters /
Monday, July 16, 2018

Two of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, Olga Pakhtusova (L) and Olga Kurachyova, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, attend a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Close

19 / 22

One of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, Pyotr Verzilov, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, gestures during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei...more

Reuters /
Monday, July 16, 2018

One of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, Pyotr Verzilov, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, gestures during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Close

20 / 22

One of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, Olga Kurachyova, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Reuters /
Monday, July 16, 2018

One of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, Olga Kurachyova, who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Close

21 / 22

Veronika Nikulshina, one of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Reuters /
Monday, July 16, 2018

Veronika Nikulshina, one of four intruders affiliated to anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot who ran onto the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia, attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

MORE IN PICTURES

Five adults face child abuse charges after authorities raided their ramshackle homestead in New Mexico and found the body of a young boy and 11 more children described by authorities as starving and ragged.

The 2003 East Coast blackout, caused by a few benign tree branches, plunged 50 million into darkness and laid bare the vulnerabilities of an aging electric grid in the most populous region of the United States.

A man deliberately drove a car into pedestrians and cyclists before ramming it into barriers outside Britain's parliament in what appeared to be the second terrorism attack on the building in just under 18 months, police said.

President Donald Trump watched an air assault demonstration at Fort Drum in upstate New York before signing a $716-billion defense policy bill that authorizes military spending and includes watered-down controls on U.S. government contracts with China's ZTE and Huawei Technologies.

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: